Prior to the present invention, nonionic water soluble polysaccharides were used in personal care applications of shaving products, such as shaving creams and shaving gels, shampoos, shampoo conditioners, hair coloring systems, skin creams, lotions, facial cleansing products, under arm products, such as deodorants, antiperspirants, and mixtures thereof, lubricating gels, oral care products, such as toothpastes and mouth washes, denture adhesives, hair styling agents, such as hair gels and mousses, soaps, shower gels, body washes, make-up products, sun screen products, and the like. Widely used commercially available polysaccharides include nonionic water soluble polysaccharide ethers such as methyl cellulose (MC), hydroxypropylmethylcellulose (HPMC), hydroxyethylcellulose (HEC), hydroxypropylcellulose (HPC), and ethylhydroxyethylcellulose (EHEC) and hydroxypropyl (HP) guar, hydroxyethyl guar, and HP starch and other nonionic starch and guar derivatives. Also, hydrophobically modifed polysaccharides are used in personal care products. The use of these prior art polysaccharides in personal care products sometimes have processing difficulties such as compatibility with other ingredients, solubility with certain other ingredients, clarity (when needed) and stability under alkaline conditions of the personal care products. Also, hydrophobically modified polysaccharide are used in personal care products.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,106,609, 5,104,646, and 5,100,658 are examples of patents that disclose the use of hydrophobically modified nonionic cellulose ethers in personal care products. These patents disclose the use high molecular weight (i.e., 300,000 to 700,000) and long chain alkyl carbon substitution in the hydrophobe (i.e., 8 to 24 carbons) for use in hair and skin care cosmetics. Also, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,228,277 and 4,352,916 describe hydrophobically modified cellulose ether derivatives, modified with long chain alkyl group substitution in the hydrophobe. U.S. Pat. No. 4,845,207 discloses a hydrophobically modified nonionic, water-soluble cellulose ether and U.S. Pat. No. 4,939,192 discloses the use of such ether in building compositions.
Certain of the prior art nonionic cellulose ethers have poor compatibility with salts or poor solubility in certain solvents used in personal care applications such as polyhydric alcohols while others are not tolerant to alkaline conditions. Hence, a need still exists in the personal care industry to have nonionic cellulose ethers that have good compatibility with salts, good solubility in certain solvents, and tolerant to alkaline conditions while producing products that do not have color problems, when desired.